Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Who is Julie? My journey started on July 10,1989 in Fairfield, CA.  But I won’t go back that far because I might lose you! My motherhood adventure started on August 23,2010 when my beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, was born.  She was a perfect 7lb 13 oz. and 21 inches long.  Have you ever found it odd that they describe height as “long” when a child is born but when you are an adult you are “tall”? When does it switch from “Long” to “tall”? Anyways, back to Elizabeth! Her first year was a rough one, and one that I wish I had skipped but it truly molded me into the woman that I am today.  Elizabeths father and I separated when she was just about 2 months old and eventually fully divorced when she was 18 months old. He lives 8 hours away from me and I lived with my parents!  I began my job at Walmart, where I eventually met my husband.  Ahmed was a breath of fresh air, as cliché as that sounds. We ultimately met through work, but we first started talking when I added him on Facebook as a joke and then I started a game of Words with Friends with him.  This eventually bloomed into a friendship, but I knew it was more than that before he knew!  Our conversations were a daily, 24-hour kind of thing.  I woke up to a “Good Morning Beautiful” every morning, and woke up looking at my phone.  January 2013 is what I consider when we became “official”.  

April 15,2013, I was busy moving into a new apartment with my parents, my phone was dead and so unfortunately I had no clue what that day would ultimately mean for my beautiful daughter.  On April 16 I woke up, plugged in my phone to charge and started making breakfast for my family in the form of sandwiches!  The instant my phone powered back up, it wouldn’t stop ringing as the messages came piling in.  The first thing I remember reading was people saying that they were sorry for my loss, that they would try to make it for the service. Needless to say, I was confused as to what/who they were talking about until I got a text from my sister in law that she needed to speak with me about something. That was when I realized that something bad had happened to David, my daughters father, and I broke down crying.  I learned that David had been in a horrible work accident and that he hadn’t made it.  Elizabeths life would never be the same.  Ahmed, Elizabeth and I made our way up north for his funeral.  After that I made more of an effort to keep her dad’s memory alive.  She would spend her vacations from school up north with her dads’ side of the family.

 On June 6,2014 two families became 1 when Ahmed and I got married.  We married in San Diego, CA at the courthouse. It may not have been big but it was special!  We were lucky enough to have my dad, his mom and dad and his children, Liliana and Marcus (Who became my step children that day) attending.  

In September of 2014 Ahmeds doctor had told him that he needed to see his Nephrologist (Kidney doctor). Ahmed made the appointment and we waited. When his appointment came, we nervously waited for the news from the doctor.  It wasn’t what we were hoping for, he would need to be put on dialysis and we chose PD (Peritoneal Dialysis), I will explain what exactly the differences in the modality types in dialysis in a later post.  December 19 (Ahmeds birthday) we took him to the ER because of swelling in his legs, they kept him all weekend because on Monday they did surgery to put in his catheter for his dialysis. That was when my adventure as a caregiver started!  Now my everyday tasks consist of taking care of a 6-year-old, being the wife to a wonderful husband and also being a caregiver to that wonderful husband.  Does life get tough? Of course!  Ask anyone with kidney disease, they will tell you it isn’t an easy disease to deal with and I will tell you that it isn’t easy for their loved ones either!  Will we make it through? Yes!  I will fight when he doesn’t have any fight left in him, and he will fight when I don’t have any fight left in me!  We help each other out!  I would like to welcome you to my blog!  I wanted to introduce myself, my family and my adventure!  My goal for this blog is to open up the door to show what it is like in the everyday life of a Dialysis warrior and their families!  Do you want to know how to save money on groceries? I have that?! You will get a sneak peek into our everyday lives that allow us both to stay home and focus on his treatment and Elizabeth! 

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